GSE News

September 4, 2013 - As Philadelphia’s public school system faces the start of a new academic year with a crippling lack of financial resources, Penn GSE’s student-run journal Perspectives on Urban Education released a special issue that offers critical analysis, a variety of perspectives, and possible solutions. The issue, titled The Dismantlement of Public Education in Philadelphia, features articles from a broad and nontraditional range of stakeholders – teachers, students, parents, nonprofit leaders, and school administrators included – and manifests “a commitment to the ideal and indispensable quality of public education.”

In an introduction to the special issue, guest editor and Penn GSE doctoral student Robert Jean LeBlanc states that “While recessions and policies have continued to provoke educational emergencies across the country in cities such as New Orleans and Chicago, the voices gathered [in this special issue] present a resounding ‘No’ in the face of the supposed inevitability of these crises.”

The special issue also features articles by Professors James H. Lytle and Rand Quinn, several articles by Penn GSE students, and a special statement by the Philadelphia Students Union.

To browse articles from Perspectives on Urban Education: The Dismantlement of Public Education in Philadelphia, click here. To share commentary or feedback on the special issue, click here.